The Malaysian Insight

A TOTAL of 31,639 voters in Cameron Highlands are eligible to choose their new representative in Parliament in a by-election today called after a court nullified the results of the 14th general election over evidence of vote-buying.

In today’s parliamentary by-election, voters will have to choose between M. Manogaran of Pakatan Harapan, Ramli Mohd Noor of Barisan Nasional, and two independents, Wong Seng Yee and Sallehudin Ab Talib.

According to an analysis by Pakatan Harapan strategist Dr Ong Kian Ming, voter turnout must be above 55%, especially among key PH supporters, for the ruling coalition to have any chance of victory.

The Malaysian Insight brings you the updates as the count goes on.

8:32pm: BN’s Ramli Mohd Nor is declared the winner of the Cameron Highlands by-election and the seat’s member of Parliament.

The announcement, made by returning officer Ishak Md Napis, was greeted by loud cheers from a contingent of BN members dressed in blue and seated in the public area of the hall at the vote tallying centre in Tanah Rata. Among them was acting Umno president Mohamad Hasan.

Only Ramli and independent candidate, farmer Wong Seng Yee, were present at the announcement. 

8pm: The EC’s official results at the tallying centre in Tanah Rata show BN with 11,617 votes and PH with 7,048.

There are just nine ballot boxes left to count.

7.26pm: Pro-BN Twitter users have started celebrating, posting victory messages and pouring scorn on PH.

Former Cameron Highlands MP C. Sivarraajh, whose act of bribing voters in GE14 led to this by-election, tweeted that BN’s win among the Orang Asli polling stations was “proof that there was no element of bribery as stated by the (election) court”. 

Sokongan masy Asli di #PRKCameronHighlands membuktikan bahawa tidak ada unsur beli undi seperti yg dikatakan oleh mahkamah. Mereka merupakan penyokong tegar BN. Semua saksi yg dibawa oleh Mano adalah org/penyokong PH . God is great wpun saya dianiaya.

— Sivarraajh (@sivarraajh) January 26, 2019

“(The Orang Asli) are staunch BN supporters. All the witnesses brought by (PH candidate) Mano(garan) are PH supporters. God is great even though I have been persecuted,” he tweeted.

Rembau MP Khairy Jamaluddin also tweeted that the results show that much of the Malay and Orang Asli vote had gone to BN, as did early votes by the police. 

“Police personnel still voting for BN despite PH being the government of the day,” he said.

Former Gerakan leader Ivanpal S. Grewal said PH should heed the results and “go back to the drawing board”. 

“(Lim) Kit Siang calling Orang Asli pseudo-citizens clearly didn’t help,” Ivanpal tweeted, referring to the DAP veteran’s claim that BN had done little to improve the lives of indigenous people.

Lawyer and activist Eric Paulsen also tweeted a warning. “This is a wake up call for PH. The rakyat are watching and they don’t like what they are seeing. They put you in power and they can put you out of power.”

The two independents, Sallehudin and Wong, have 295 votes and 226 votes, respectively. – January 26, 2019.

6.56pm: The EC’s unofficial results shows BN winning 11,381 votes compared with PH’s 7,182, giving BN candidate Ramli Mohd Nor a 4,199-vote majority.

At a voter turnout of 68% of the seat’s nearly 32,000 voters, and with BN and PH the main rivals, Ramli has clinched the by-election by breaking the midway point of some 11,000 votes.

More than half of the total 89 ballot boxes have been counted.

The two independents, Sallehudin and Wong, have 295 votes and 226 votes, respectively. 

6.41pm: BN now has 10,579 votes to PH’s 5,027, based on unofficial results by the EC at the tallying centre in Tanah Rata.

The two independents – Wong and Sallehudin – have 141 and 252, respectively.

The EC’s official results, displayed separately, show a lower vote count but with BN still in the lead after 23 out of a total of 89 ballot boxes were counted and verified.

6.05pm: The EC puts voter turnout at 68.6% as at 5.30pm, when polling closed at all stations.

While this is higher than the minimum 55% turnout PH says it needs to have a fighting chance at winning the Cameron Highlands seat, results are showing that BN is in the lead.

BN’s lead now stands at 6,001 votes, according to the EC’s unofficial count at the SMK Ahmad Shah tallying centre in Tanah Rata.

6pm: The Election Commission’s unofficial vote tally puts BN in the lead with 9,463 votes and PH with 3,592 votes, giving BN a majority of 5,871 votes.

Between the two independent candidates, Sallehudin Ab Talib has more votes at 202 while farmer Wong Seng Yee has only 90.

Votes are being brought to SMK Ahmad Shah in Tanah Rata from polling stations around the constituency to be tallied. 

The EC is displaying the results on two screens, one showing an unofficial tally that is updated as votes from polling streams are brought in, while the other screen shows final results with no further changes.

5.50pm: Unofficial results from BN sources show it is now leading in 11 polling stations with 5,081 votes, while PH has 2,229.

BN also appears to have increased its majority in the Jelai state seat with an extra 2,000 votes compared with the majority it obtained in GE14.

In GE14, BN won the Jelai state seat with a majority of 3,507 votes. Based on its own unofficial tally, it currently has a majority of 5,207 votes in this by-election.

5.30pm: BN is leading in postal votes for both Tanah Rata and Jelai, the two state seats in the Cameron Highlands federal constituency.

According to BN sources, unofficial results show that BN has 71 postal votes in Tanah Rata while PH has 24. In Jelai, BN has 9 and PH 3.

PH, meanwhile, is leading in most polling streams at the Kg Raja polling station, a predominantly Chinese area, according to an unofficial tally at the PH campaign operations centre in Brinchang.

5.11pm: Unofficial results from Barisan Nasional sources show that BN has won in seven polling centres that closed before 5pm because of their location in the interior.

BN has won 2,897 votes while Pakatan Harapan has received 505 votes.

These polling stations are Lemoi, Sg Koyan, Kuala Medang, Pos Lenjang, Titom, Terisu and Bukit Kota.

There are 29 polling stations throughout the federal seat’s constituency.

4.55pm: Ballots have begun to be counted.

The Election Commission (EC) pegged voter turnout at 68%, an hour before balloting ended at 5pm. – January 26, 2019.